Medical, dental, pharmaceutical, veterinary or mortuary instruments are routinely exposed to blood or other body fluids during various procedures. Following such procedures, a thorough cleaning and microbial deactivation of the instruments is required before subsequent use. Liquid microbial deactivation systems are now widely used to clean and deactivate instruments that cannot withstand the high temperature of a steam deactivation system. Liquid microbial deactivation systems typically operate by exposing the instruments to a liquid disinfectant or a deactivation composition, such as peracetic acid or some other strong oxidant. In such systems, the instruments to be cleaned are typically placed within a deactivation chamber of the deactivation system, or in a container that is placed within the deactivation chamber. During a deactivation cycle, a liquid disinfectant is then circulated through the deactivation chamber (and the container therein).
In order to maintain sterility of the instruments outside the deactivation system during storage, the instruments must be dried following completion of the deactivation cycle, thereby removing residual moisture from the instruments. The implementation of a separate “drying cycle” in the deactivation system significantly increases total processing time. Moreover, the liquid microbial deactivation system is unavailable for treatment of another load of instruments during the “drying cycle.” Use of a separate drying device independent of the deactivation system also results in several problems. First, it may be difficult to maintain sterility while transferring instruments from the deactivation device to the drying device. The use of a separate drying device also requires additional expense to purchase the drying device, and additional space at the point of use.
The present invention overcomes the drawbacks of the prior art by providing a method and apparatus for ultrasonically drying articles in a liquid microbial deactivation system.